Trailer Tuesdays

Through Ms. Miskell’s graciousness, I’ve been allowed to contribute my own little entries in the form of Trailer Tuesdays, in which I’ll highlight one or two trailers from upcoming movies. I promise to provide as much humor and snark as I am capable and in the keeping of our blog’s mission. So without further ado, here are the first two trailers for this first column:

Eddie Murphy Adopts a Family in Mr. Church

As I child of the 80s, I was more than aware of the presence of Eddie Murphy. But awareness was as far as I got, given that Murphy’s very adult humor wouldn’t be considered a match for someone of my tender years. As maligned as adulthood is with the weightier responsibilities of life, there are quite a number of perks to finally being a grownup: no one has the authority to tell you NOT to have ice cream for breakfast, and you can finally look up all those risqué movies and songs you were not allowed to listen to at one time. Enter – again – Eddie Murphy. I actually turned into a bit of a fan, even if the glory days of Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America are behind him (side note: I still want to form a band called Sexual Chocolate, even if I have to revise that to Sexual WHITE Chocolate). Also, there are a number of more recent enjoyable performances in Shrek and the underrated Dr. Doolittle that are unfairly overshadowed by the inferior assignments he’s either forced or coerced to take on. He is a working actor, after all, and one’s gotta take what one can get sometimes, as Hollywood seems often at a loss in knowing how to harness an older actor’s style to current trends.

However, Hollywood and Murphy seem determined to make magic again with Mr. Church, an Envision Media Arts production set to open September 16. According to the information provided by Rotten Tomatoes, the film is set in 1965 Los Angeles where the titular Mr. Church has moved in to take care of a single mom and her daughter, Charlie (Charlotte) through the arrangement of the mother’s former lover (though all that is ambiguous in the trailer). The relationship between Church and Charlie bristles at first and then softens to Charlie’s acceptance of Mr. Church as a friend and father figure as she grows from a precocious young girl to a Boston University student, and then as an unmarried mother. Through it all, Mr. Church is the center of Charlie’s family and it seems, for Mr. Church, it’s mutual. Sadly, the critics aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes aren’t feeling very generous towards this movie. But I’ll watch it anyway. I want to give Mr. Murphy all the support I can as a viewer: